Press - Reviews and Quotes

DANCE REVIEW Los Angeles Times, Calendar

Maria Gillespie: a fearless investigator

By Sara Wolf Special to The Times
March 27 2004

Two-time Lester Horton Award winner Maria Gillespie is a performer of endless surprise. Vaulting and careening across a stage one moment, hovering precariously on tiptoe the next, she abandons herself to gravity and impulse with an infectious delight.
In recent years, Gillespie has been translating this delight, and the physical volatility from which it arises, into a range of dances seen around town as part of various shared programs.

Corralled together at Highways Performance Space on Thursday in the young choreographer’s first show of her own work, "On the Way to Melting," Gillespie’s growing repertory demonstrates a capacious gift for idiosyncratic movement invention that showcases unpredictability (both emotional and physical) as it trades on the dramatic implications of kinetic extremes.

Gillespie’s investigation of the expressive potential of pure movement is at heart resolutely modern, as is evident in "Chronic/vs. II." Formerly a trio but expanded (to its benefit) to a quartet, the dance traces the emotional contours of melancholy as Lillian Bitkoff, Ragen Carlile, Monica Gillette and Alesia Young alternately offer support or flail in isolated squares of light.

Whatever statement the piece attempts to make about women’s community, these dancers are no less strong standing alone. Indeed, as much as standouts Bitkoff and Young fumble to articulate what they’re feeling, we can’t help but trust that they’ll prevail, given the forceful gestural vocabulary they perform with such alacrity.

As in the evening’s two duets, the women of "Chronic" ricochet between vulnerability and strength with razor-sharp shifts in intensity and intent.
Gillespie’s dances share unexpected twists and turns: Limbs extend into space only to snap and recoil, a poised suspension suddenly deflates, an expansive circular sweep of the leg resolves with a quick kick that sends a dancer sprawling on the floor.

Gillespie’s solo "Peak," one of two premieres on the program, courts such daring and awkwardness. The piece is an odd amalgam of humor and pathos, set to a teenage Wayne Newton warbling "Danke Schoen" and to a piece of delicate instrumentation by Arvo Pärt, but what it lacks in cohesion is made up for by Gillespie’s willingness to alternate lush moves with inelegant poses.

In "Prologue of an Altered Day," the other premiere, Gillespie and Gillette attract and repel each other in a series of partnering gambits that often wind the women into Gordian knots. Cantilevered weight-sharing signals emotional capitulation as well, as the pair face off in a roundelay of moves that signal hesitancy as much as need.

Patrick Damon Rago and the long, lithe Chris Stanley up the ante of deliciously risky partnering in the previously reviewed "Sync Through, Revel Two," a classic duet exploring "masculine" and "feminine" movement that has fast become an audience favorite. The challenge now facing Gillespie is to build a troupe as fearless as she is. With Bitkoff, Young, Rago and Stanley, she’s off to a good start. Additionally, Carlos Rodriquez adds much to the previously reviewed "The Shape of Interruption," a humorous quartet of misguided passions set to a medley of tango music.

Los Angeles Times Calendar Weekend

Rocking the house

L.A. is becoming the epicenter of 21 st century dance, thanks to a new wave of young talent.

By Victoria Looseleaf
Thursday, January 22, 2004

Five who are raising the barre… Maria Gillespie

Her dancing can veer from swift and hummingbird-like to meltingly graceful in a heartbeat. Since relocating from New York to Los Angeles in 1996, the petite, 32-year-old Gillespie has been making a name for herself in modern dance as a performer, choreographer and teacher. Last year, she received two Lester Horton Dance Awards for individual and small ensemble performance for her work in Victoria Marks’ “Against Ending.” As a member of Helios Dance Theater, she electrified audiences at the Ford Amphitheatre last summer in Laura Gorenstein Miller’s “The Quickening. As choreographer, she often celebrates the body through elongated stretches and sculptural poses. Next month, Gillespie, who teaches modern dance at UCLA, will appear in a faculty festival at the university’s Kinross Building, and in March she’ll present a solo evening at Highways.

DANCE REVIEW Los Angeles Times, Calendar

New, inspired works by choreography duo

By Victoria Looseleaf
Special to The Times
February 8 2003

Highways Performance Space played host to an auspicious pairing of choreographers Thursday in an evening of nine mostly new works under the banner "Left, Chronic, and Other Dances." Maria Gillespie is visceral; Carmela Hermann, cerebral. Both brim with a playful, yet profound, sense of the body in motion.

In Gillespie’s premiere, "Chronic" — a triptych of solos set to Max Duncan’s original, Hendrix-like guitar groanings (on tape) — Lillian Bitkoff, Holly Rothschild and Alesia Young could have been the three Graces — in hell. Exploding with aggressive hopping, skittering and lunging, the piece, which with the other works repeats tonight at the Santa Monica venue, was a malleable sculpture in which beauty reigned in partnering. Gillespie’s new solo, "Occiput, Gall Bladder, and Tibia," had the choreographer in a frisky mode, thoroughly enjoying a backward sliding gambit.

With "Sync Through, Revel Two," another Gillespie premiere, signature leaps and elongated stretches took on a kind of religious fervor as stunningly danced by Chris Stanley and Johnny Tu.

June 29, 2003
DANCE REVIEW

Strong steps forward

By Chris Pasles, Times Staff Writer

An excerpt … “Just about every one of the seven choreographers in the fourth annual Dance Moving Forward Festival, produced by Arianne MacBean, presented strong work Thursday at the Electric Lodge in Venice.
Maria Gillespie proved to be the Twyla Tharp of tango in her consistently inventive and witty "The Shape of Interruption, Version I," with herself and Lillian Bitkoff, Todd McQuade and Chris Stanley soloing and pairingoff in various configurations yet inevitably interfering with one another’s designs and plans.”

Monday, August 6, 2001
DANCE REVIEW Los Angeles Times, Calendar

Two of Helios’ Members Step Out on Their Own

Dancer-choreographer Maria Gillespie proves charismatic in a program with Paula Present.

By VICTORIA LOOSELEAF

Helios Dance Theater has been cited for creating works of power and whimsy. Two Helios dancer-choreographers— Maria Gillespie and Paula Present—struck out on their own Saturday at Electric Lodge in “Busy Being Born,” an eight-part program that announced a charismatic talent in Gillespie. She’s a mighty performer, and her fluid line, determined attitude and distinct vision proved beguiling.

In two solos, “Hover” (an improvisation to Bridget Convey’s live piano tinklings) and “Wakatta/coming in clear” (to a collage tape track), Gillespie displayed a fierce, supple presence—a firebrand whose richness of movement captivated, even while leisurely walking.

Gillespie’s “Merge,” a duet for company members Diana Mehoudar and Shelley Wilcox, pitted them against each other in a kind of terpsichorean cat fight: A haughty Mehoudar, dancing with crisp classicism accentuated by beautiful extensions to Albinoni’s “Adagio,” contrasted to the comedic moves of Wilcox (think a sprightly Jerry Lewis), who assayed stylized pratfalls to the music of Handel.

Another Gillespie duet, “to want to have to hold,” paired her with Present in an energetic mating dance set to jazz music. This opus amplified a lyric fearlessness, as the couple exhibited lifts and balancing feats, with an ultimate sweetness prevailing.

Artists Pull Audience Into Their World

‘Festival of Solos and Duets’ showcases energetic and highly personal works from local talents, turning emotions from joy to fear into enigmatic movement.

By Lewis Segal, Los Angeles Times Dance Critic
Monday, January 14, 2002

… Maria Gillespie, however, danced with increasingly fractured and flung-out desperation as voices bombarded her in “Wakatta/coming in clear,” the evenings most punishing solo and another testament to a woman’s bravery under fire…

Spinning words into movement

By Joyce Rudolph, News-Press and Leader

Perched on a folding chair, the dancer twisted herself in and out of a pretzel shape, then kicked her legs outward, allowing the brilliant pink skirt to whip around her thighs. The expression on her face changed from playful to seductive, then back to playful.

The dance piece was "Peak," a solo choreographed and danced by Maria Gillespie, artistic director of Oni Dance. Her company kicked off the Associates of Brand Library 2005 Dance Series Sunday in the Brand Library Art Galleries.

Inspiration for the choreography came from the poem "Song for a Red Nightgown" by Anne Sexton. The dance is a meditation on sensuality and relates to a woman’s life when she is at her peak.

"I read the poem, and it impacted my life, and I have read it for years," she said. "It touched me. The images from the poem were potent enough to make me want to investigate them in the dance-making process."

To make it more playful, the dance is done to Wayne Newton’s "Danka Schoen" and Erik Satie’s "Gnossienne #1."

"Peak" was one of five contemporary pieces in the performance, which was followed by a question-and-answer period. The series is not only to entertain but to educate, organizers said, so several area high school dance teachers assigned their students to write a paper about what they saw.

Rebecca R. Levy, a dance teacher at South Pasadena High School, asks her students to write two critical papers each semester and suggests the Brand series because it’s free, close and involves a variety of companies, she said.

Modern-dance performances are expensive, so this is an economical way for students to see a professional experience, she said.

"The students can’t be great dancers until they’ve seen professional dancers and have been exposed to the art," she said.

Jordon Orovco, a student from Levy’s class, said his favorite choreography was in the last piece, "The Shape of Interruption."

"I was impressed with all the lifts they were doing," the 17-year-old said. "To have so much strength to do it is amazing. Also, for the choreographer, too, to have the vision to put a lot of those lifts in there, it enhances the dance and feeling and emotions that come out of it. When you do that, it is very effective on the people who are watching."

Orovco added that seeing the professionals inspired him to follow dance as a career.

"When you see the professionals dance, you want to do it yourself," he said.

Levy, who lives in Glendale, encourages students to see live dance because they gain an understanding of the fine-tuning that goes into every piece.

"It’s difficult to teach them that in the classroom," she said.

And for the dance companies like Oni Dance, they have the chance to share their work with a wider audience at Brand Library, Gillespie said. Oni Dance was just formed in September.

"Over the past five years, most of my work has been performed on the Westside of Los Angeles," she said. "I want to broaden my exposure to a new audience."

In January, Gillespie was selected by Dance Magazine as one of the dance artists for 2005’s "Top 25 to Watch."

The dancers in her company were part of a touring group that went to Japan during the summer.

When they returned, she decided these individuals worked so well together, she formally created the company.

In honor of the inspirational trip to Japan, she named the company Oni after a character from Japanese mythology, which is a symbol of transforming human weaknesses into beauty and courage. It depicts her goal to become a thriving company, she said.

Benita Bike, a member of the Brand Associates, and former dance coordinator for this series, called Gillespie an extraordinary performer.

"She uses the release technique, a style of dancing that came from the Jose Limon dance company," Bike said. "It has a very flowing, breathy and breezy feel to the movement. [Gillespie] is a fine example of a dancer who works in that technique."